Teaching, Nongs, and The Sweet Life

Hey everyone! It's currently downpouring outside right now--good thing I literally just stepped into the internet cafe or I would have gotten completely soaked. Hardest rain I've seen in a long time. Anyway, I finished my first week of teaching and oh my god it was seriously incredible! I absolutely love it! I taught twenty minutes on Tuesday and then forty five minutes yesterday (next week I teach the entire 90 min class by myelf.) Tuesday I taught them everyday objects like book, car, orange, yada yada and yesterday it was all about countries and being able to understand I'm from, you're from he's/she's from. The first and last pictures are of me teaching the class yesterday. I taught them countries like India, Thailand, America, Canada (which for obviously reasons shouldn't be acknowledge, everyone hates Canada right?), China, Germany, etc. The forth picture is of two girls playing the "slap game". The slap game is a fun game they get to play that brings the entire lesson together at the end. I put the students in teams of two and they have to stand in the very back of the room in 2 lines and when I yell a country name two of them had to race up and grab it and whoever did first then yells "I'm from blah country!! YAY" haha So in this picture the two hilarious girls were so into it that they actually ripped Thailand in half accidentally! I made them then shout out "WE'RE from Thailand!" Everyone gets sooo competitive during that game, its the cutest thing ever. I have some favorite students definitely like a little boy named Golf (prounced Gop?) and his sister Pop who are both really quiet but are catching on so quickly. Also a young man named Jong is the little trouble maker in the class but he's so funny to watch and I've already seen progression in him within these last two days. After having a near panic attack before my lesson (just a little nervous to teach for 45 minutes straight) and actually going through the lesson with the class I figured it was time for a nice and frothy beer.

Me and some others went to Nongs last night and got some tall boys (big beers Mom and Dad.) The owner of Nongs is a 26 year old named Nong (duh) and his mother. Nong has near perfect english thanks to our program which he started three years ago and has since finished. It was amazing talking with him and comparing stories and hearing about certain parts of Thailand that I have to travel to--like some island he's from that has about 40 pink dolphins supposedly. He's also in charge of taking us snorkeling (in 1 week!) He's taking us on the 4 island tour which is all around Phi Phi island! Google that and you'll see how beautiful it is! Also near Phi Phi is the bay from the movie the Beach so we're definitely hitting that hot spot up as well. I even convinced Nong into taking me fishing this Sunday at some freshwater spot near by, can't wait for that! Funny little story, I asked him what Nong meant in Thai and he said it means last son but that he has a younger brother. So I asked why wasn't your younger brother named Nong and all he said was "Accident!" Haha so his mom hadn't planned on the youngest son and so named Nong, Nong, thinking it'd be her last son. Woops! I feel bad for the last son who's name is just Dan and knows he was an accident and has to hear it every day of his life when he hears his brothers name haha! His mom was soo cute too. The picture above is a picture of Nong, his mom, and two of his friends.

The beer Leo (see above pic) is soo good and definitely hits ya hard. I think it's over 6% proof. After a few of those last night I was definitely having a good good time chatting with the Brits of the program. It's so funny during our training every day we have to do exercises that we would do with our students like say words and drill them over and over again. One word was batminton and I pronounce it "badmitton" (always thought it was spelled like that too.) So everyone in my program was like No it's batminton miNNNNton and I just kept saying mitton mitton mittttttton! And finally my teacher was literally like "NO hannah there's an N in it" which shocked me and I finally figured it out. Every one started laughing at me like I was one of the Thai students but it's "bloody" hard understanding all the Brits over here and the weird lingo they use day to day!!

This place is really amazing--I can't say it enough. Just the other day we were walking to the near by swimming pool/country club and we went passed it on accident and ended up in this beautiful meditation garden. There was loud calming music playing from a huge speaker and all these little bungalows that some monks live in. I even saw one monk walking around and tried to snap a picture of him but it came out pretty dark. It was the most peaceful spot I have found on earth so far. I love little things like that, you go down one little road and find the most amazing little hidden treasure at the end of it. There's a lot of places like that around here and I can't wait to show you all the pictures I've taken when I get home! We're having a party tonight at our house and then going out afterwards--kind of excited to see what the nightlife is like in this little village! Then Saturday we're kayaking (like I mentioned earlier) thru all these mangroves, I can't wait for that! Alright well I hope everyone back at home is doing well and I miss you all so much! Hopefully this rain stops so I can walk home instead of hibernate in this little internet cafe for a couple hours! Love.

Oh and PS! Since the english classes are free for the students and they don't have to be there, one student shows up wasted (mom and dad, that means drunk) to my class every day--it's sooo funny. I really don't think he's remembering any english but hey, at least he shows up!